I was proud of several individuals today – firstly, I was proud of players such as O’Leary and Evans for the effort they put in during a meaningless end-of-season encounter played on a bobbly pitch in windy conditions. More importantly, I was proud of our fans.
When Zesh Rehman made a bad error that led to the first Macclesfield goal, boos rang out. This was, to an extent, an understandable reaction to the concession of such a goal (although I have to say, I did not join in with the booing myself – I am still of the opinion that you don’t boo your own).
Teams are often booed when they go behind at home, and it is usually unclear as to whether an individual is being booed or whether the fans are simply voicing their displeasure at conceding a goal.
However, the booing continued every time Rehman touched the ball. As he went to retrieve the ball from near the dugout, the fans immediately in front of him began applauding. This fine initiative soon spread and we on the Kop joined in with the applause, adding vaguely encouraging shouts of “go on Zesh”.
It was heartwarming and unusual to see such a reaction to the abuse of a Bradford player by his own fans. In fact, apart from the goal scored by Luke Oliver, this was perhaps the highlight of the game for me.
In my opinion, Valley Parade is a better place to play football and to watch football when the boo boys stay silent – I do hope that the next time they target an individual the rest of the crowd will respond in the same way that they did today and drown out the negative response of those fans who feel entitled to pick on players they dislike.
I say “dislike” for a reason. After all, I don’t recall Bolder being booed for his lapse against Dagenham and Redbridge (or either of the centre-halves for their own goals in the same game). Clearly simply making a mistake is not enough to draw abuse or booing from the crowd – the player making the mistake must be a popular scapegoat before the fans will target him with boos.
The fans who began the applause, and those who joined in with it, are more than just fans in my opinion – they are supporters.
